[lohithrao]

Kishore great news, so guess all the repair work on Shiradi is over?

On the traffic have noticed if you are travelling back on sunday that is after a long break then you will have a bad time from hassan onwards. experienced many times...

Originally Posted by bkishore_77

Hi ,

I had been to Mangalore on 29th and returned y'day. i.e 3rd May. I started at around 5:15 PM from Concorde motors, Mysore road after filling the coolant and getting a quick general check up done for my Safari.

The unfortunate part was i was fined 300 Rs for exceeding the speed limit of 50 KMPH. I was doin 63 KMPH. These people were standing just 300 mts from before the Kengeri signal. I also observed that the police were not very strict in stopping the vehicles. They just waved nochalantly and if any vehicle stopped then it's good for them. Coz i saw many vehicles speeding well beyond 50 KMPH speed limit which is really absurd for this stretch. The irony was, I was just talking to my wife couple of mins earlier about these interceptors which other BHPians had warned in this forum .

Now to good news. I took the Mysore-road- Nice Rd- Magadi- Kunigal - Shiradi-BC road - M'lore- Suratkal. The Shiradi road has returned to its old glory. . I reached Suratkal at 11:45 PM with 30 mins break at Kamath Upachar. Except for 3-4 Kms of uneven (no pot holes though) stretch near Gundya, the rest of the road is super smooth. The other 1 Km of bad road was after Tavarekere on the way to Magadi where they are already laying a new road. So the whole 377 Kms from home -to-home is good.

One interesting thing I observed is, none of the heavy vehicles lowered their headlight beam even if u switch on to low beam but the smaller vehicles always did. I'm used to night driving for the last decade and half but somhow I felt a very high percentage of vehicles did not dim the light this time.

While returning I took the same route back. There was heavy traffic from Bellur to Kunigal and after that. It was like a big caravan. Overtaking was challenging affair. Still there were some people doing some crazy overtaking maneuver. I'm glad that I took a deviation to Magadi after Kunigal instead of going to Nelamangala. There were hardly any traffic in this stretch.
Thanks to BHPians who shared the details of this route.

Regards

[bkishore_77]

Originally Posted by lohithrao

Kishore great news, so guess all the repair work on Shiradi is over?

Hi Lohith
Yes. I saw the heavy construction vehicles still parked but there were no activities though. I hope it weathers the rainy season this time.

Originally Posted by lohithrao

On the traffic have noticed if you are travelling back on sunday that is after a long break then you will have a bad time from hassan onwards. experienced many times...

I bet this is the reason. That is a unusually heavy traffic in this stretch. The disappointing fact is the stretch from BC road to M'ore. Though not pot-holed, I expected it to be four laned at least 90% of the stretch from the last time I visited couple of months back. Alas it is only 50% complete and the work is going on in a snail's pace.

There is no proper direction or marking and most of the time even though it is 4 laned, only two lane are operational and they have placed boulders at the end of the non-operational two lane

But Lohith, Anything is better than the 2006-07 nightmare. what Say ?

[pshyamsundar]

addyhemmige - thanks for your detailed itinerary. But I had to skip udupi this time. I went to sringeri and horanadu and returned back to bangalore.

I went to sringeri on friday and horanadu on saturday.

Update on road condition.

Bangalore - Nelamangla (the most horrible part)
all the way good until chikmagalur
chikmagalur- sringeri - very good

chikmagalur - horanadu road is good only until balehonur

Balehonnur - horandau (road is bad and sometimes worse)

Kalasa - kothigehara road is not good (took 2 hrs for 55 kms)

Nobody drives on low beam these days. All the opposite vehicles came in high beam and so was I.

these days people hardly have driving sense. they do not give way to upcoming vehicles on hills. People climbing down come too fast and they do not stay on the left.

If I was not anticipatory I would have been hit by cars at atleast three places. May god bless those great drivers.

[addyhemmige]

Originally Posted by pshyamsundar

addyhemmige - thanks for your detailed itinerary. But I had to skip udupi this time. I went to sringeri and horanadu and returned back to bangalore.

I went to sringeri on friday and horanadu on saturday.

Update on road condition.

Bangalore - Nelamangla (the most horrible part)
all the way good until chikmagalur
chikmagalur- sringeri - very good

chikmagalur - horanadu road is good only until balehonur

Balehonnur - horandau (road is bad and sometimes worse)

Kalasa - kothigehara road is not good (took 2 hrs for 55 kms)

Anytime PSS!!!

Even I had been to Karkala this weekend & i took this route to get there. Hassan-belur-Mudigere-Kottigehara-Kalasa-Kudremukh-Bajagoli-Karkala. It seems roads are decent after getting down from the ghats (kalasa to Karkala was also good). In fact, the road from Kukke Subramanya runs parallel to the coast and the ghats. This road runs all the way to Kollur along this route. Kukke-Gundya-Dharmasthala-Ujire-Belthangadi-karkala-Hebri-Shankarnarayana-Haladi-Vandse-Kollur. It is almost parallel to the ghats & runs just below it. This is well maintained although it is a single road.

I came back via Shiradi & was very relieved to see the completion of repairs, although temporary.

[marlinspike]

Originally Posted by bkishore_77

Hi ,
One interesting thing I observed is, none of the heavy vehicles lowered their headlight beam even if u switch on to low beam but the smaller vehicles always did. I'm used to night driving for the last decade and half but somhow I felt a very high percentage of vehicles did not dim the light this time.

While returning I took the same route back. There was heavy traffic from Bellur to Kunigal and after that. It was like a big caravan. Overtaking was challenging affair. Still there were some people doing some crazy overtaking maneuver. I'm glad that I took a deviation to Magadi after Kunigal instead of going to Nelamangala. There were hardly any traffic in this stretch.
Thanks to BHPians who shared the details of this route.

Regards

I went to mysore and stayed at Swaastya Ayurvedic retreat. Had to take a left after srirangapatna and 2 Kms of kutcha road. Discovered in the morning that there is a shorter better route through a village as I took turn when I was returning to the highway.

Day two went to Melkote and from there to shravan belakola. Felt the 650 step climb on a bare rock face under blazing sun was not worth it when I saw the statue was not much more than the one I had seen in Dharmastala.

But then the road from Melkote to Shravanbelakola is another story. Thats is a drifters dream come true kind of a road and its absolutly empty between 3-4 PM. Wish I was driving a mazda RX-7 instead of my Fiesta S. ABS does not seem to allow the tail to get out by much and I had my granma in the rear seat and coudn't really test the curves on the stretch but still had a fun ride.

The road from shravan belakola to pandavapura was not bad either but had one too many speed breakers closer to mysore -blr highway.

Check out @ 8:15 PM and 9:50 near rajarajeswari nagar arch and 10:30 at old madras road indiranagar 8- ft road junction.

Two days later Start to Mysore again stay @ swastya get complements for my choice of place to stay. @ 1200 per room not a bad deal. Play in the stream branching of cauvery, right next to the cottage before check out next morning and on to Kushalanagara- madikeri-sampaje- kallugundi - kuke.
Kuke- gundya - hasan-kunigal-neelamangala- outer ring road to Kasturi nagar.

kallugundi - kukke is a single road and low traffic and I was taking steep S bends @ 70, yes the Fiesta S carves corners so well and was planted to the road despite my antics.

Gundya to sakleshpur @ night was best avoided in hindsight, no the road is alright but the trucks are awful. no dipping the beams and @ one point I was staring at like 8 beams coming out of a corner of the road, figured thats three vehicles abreast inching and overtaking slowly. Had to get of the road and wait on the shoulder to let them pass. and I will not take the Hassan-Neelamangla road ever again @ night till they make it fully four lane.

That trucks and LCVS were worse in that stretch, was horrible as they dont dip their beams and you cant see which way the road ahead turns and which truck is parked on the road, they dont care if there is no shoulder to park, just about park in the middle of the road.

Stopped @ cofee day for half an hour to fix my nerves orient my eyes and reached blr like 7:30 in the morning. two days and the trip meter shows 823 Kms.

[lohithrao]

Yea Kishore, dont mind the road now

but whenever i travel on NH48 i feel real bad....it used to be so lush green and now its barren...

Other side once the 4 laning is completed and considering the that shiradi and BC road work is done...in this scenario Mangalore should be doable in 4-5 hours....

Originally Posted by bkishore_77

Hi Lohith
Yes. I saw the heavy construction vehicles still parked but there were no activities though. I hope it weathers the rainy season this time.



I bet this is the reason. That is a unusually heavy traffic in this stretch. The disappointing fact is the stretch from BC road to M'ore. Though not pot-holed, I expected it to be four laned at least 90% of the stretch from the last time I visited couple of months back. Alas it is only 50% complete and the work is going on in a snail's pace.

There is no proper direction or marking and most of the time even though it is 4 laned, only two lane are operational and they have placed boulders at the end of the non-operational two lane

But Lohith, Anything is better than the 2006-07 nightmare. what Say ?

[marlinspike]

Originally Posted by lohithrao

Yea Kishore, dont mind the road now
Other side once the 4 laning is completed and considering the that shiradi and BC road work is done...in this scenario Mangalore should be doable in 4-5 hours....

Can you expand BC road. Cant make out what it means.

[lohithrao]

marlin its "Bantwala Cross Road"

[ash_blore]

after the shiradi ghat section, how is the route to darmasthala-karkala-udupi? Is that stretch allright as well?

[prabhusati]

I started from Bangalore on Thursday, 30th April 2009. Planned to leave office by 5.30pm, but could leave only by 6.15pm. My brother joined me at Kodigehalli Gate at 6.45pm. Got stuck at BEL circle for some time. This location is a bottle neck in the evenings. Anyone planning to travel through this junction in urgency / emergency, better to avoid. The cops switch off the signal light and allow traffic only from BEL / Vidyaranyapura side and Mathikere side. Took the Jalahalli route to reach Tumkur road. Traffic was heavy but continuously moving. Reached the NH48 turn on Tumkur road by 8pm Took a break at 10pm at Kamat Upachar at Chennarayapatna Started off again at 10.30pmand reached home in Mangalore by 2.30am. Mining trucks were in large numbers on the Shiradi Ghat. Patch work is being done and the area where the concrete turns start and end have been repaired. These were the major problem areas previously on the ghat road. This repair work has again made driving a pleasure on this ghat stretch.

Gundya to BC Road is good, all the damaged curves have been repaired. But the question of whether all this repair of NH48 from Sakaleshpur to BC Road will last the monsoon season is a million dollar question. BC Road to Mangalore is horrible with umpteen number of diversions. Work is not progressing fast and come monsoons, this activity will come to a standstill creating a bigger mess. Most of the diversions have not been asphalted properly and with the heavy rains in coastal areas, this area will be a big crator in no time. Uppinangady to Mangalore used to take between 1 hour to 1 hour 15minutes a few years back, but now you need a minimum of 1 and half hour. Total distance was 356 kms and it required 23.29 litres of diesel (Shell ordinary diesel) giving 15.29 kms / litre. Driving speed did not exceed 100kmpl and AC was on all the time.

On the return journey (3rd May 2009), started from Mangalore at 12 noon. Lunch break was at Uppinangady (in-law's place) from 1.30pm to 2.30pm. Traffic on the shiradi ghat stretch was heavy. Mostly people returning from their trip to Dharmastala and Kukke Subramanya. Reached NH48-NH4 junction at 7.40pm and what a traffic jam!. This junction is closed and one has to take left and continue towards Tumkur for some distance and then take a U-Turn and come towards Bangalore. With no cops on duty, it was free for all. Vehicles going towards Tumkur were on the right side of the road, vehicles on the extreme left want to take the U-Turn, in between cab drivers honking away to glory and trying to get in if you give even a feet of gap in between you and the vehicle in front of you. Reached Jalahalli cross at 9.00pm with both feet aching because of the constant use of clutch & brakes. Took the Ayyappa temple road, dropped my brother at his home and managed to reach mine at 9.40pm. Have'nt removed my car since and will post the mileage during return journey once i fill diesel this week.

Some pics of NH48 below taken during the return journey.

[lohithrao]

prabhu good report man

am not very sure if the roads will remain the same after the rain starts, lets hope for the best..

ash_blore, the road condition is good to Kukke and Dharmasthala to Karkala was always good. just the roads are but narrow thats it.

Prabhu, OT - how does the Innova behave on the hilly roads? esp climbing up? and how about on bad roads?? keen to know

[Glifford]

Originally Posted by prabhusati

I started from Bangalore on Thursday, 30th April 2009. Planned to leave office by 5.30pm, but could leave only by 6.15pm..

Excellent report man! Very well documented and immensely helpful to people like me who want to do a Bangalore-Mangalore-Udipi sometime near the end of this month!

Must have taken a lot of effort!

Thanks!

[ravibhat]

This mansoon roads will be worst hit as good rain is expected this patch work won't last long. But mining activity has come down due to less profit (rates are down for iron ores).

If there are less heavy vehicles in these roads then roads may last long. Quality of repair work done is not again great so nothing changed.

Only NDA government at centre and BJP at karnataka can save state/national hughway roads in karnataka. But work execution will take time, as per their estimates expect best roads in Karnataka by May 2010.

I hope soon we get quality roads in Karnataka too like we see Tamil Nadu.

Ravi.

[gowda79]

Originally Posted by ravibhat

Only NDA government at centre and BJP at karnataka can save state/national hughway roads in karnataka. But work execution will take time, as per their estimates expect best roads in Karnataka by May 2010.

Ravi, any government the same thing will happen. All are corrupted and it is better we do not talk about them on this forum.

[prabhusati]

Originally Posted by lohithrao

am not very sure if the roads will remain the same after the rain starts, lets hope for the best..

Yes, it is only a hope, while reality may be something else. My personal opinion is that the Shiradi ghat stretch will again go bad in the monsoons. If the roads are good, driving is such a pleasure. But when you have roads with huge crators, you feel so frustrated.

Originally Posted by lohithrao

Prabhu, OT - how does the Innova behave on the hilly roads? esp climbing up? and how about on bad roads?? keen to know

You have to live with the fact that you cannot expect the Innova (diesel version) to respond like a petrol vehicle. You need to change gears appropriately to get the required momemtum. There were many instances on the ghat road climb on this journey. Since traffic was heavy, i was in a situation where we required heavy acceleration to quickly overtake. So, i had to change to even 2nd gear many times to get it.

My previous car is Maruti Omni and during the intitial days of owning a Toyota Innova, i did get caught (not by the cops) while overtaking and had to quickly brake and get behind the vehicle i was trying to overtake. Innova will not respond like the Omni in terms of quick accelaration when you need to overtake with another vehicle coming from the opposite direction. But now i know what my vehicle can deliver and i plan overtaking accordingly.

Otherwise, during the climb, the vehicle has enough power with full load also.

Regarding driving on bad roads, the vehicle's shock absorbers are good and have seen taxi Innova's driving fast on bad roads. No idea what will be the condition of the shocks after they complete the journey. But I do not feel that way and cannot abuse my vehicle and i drive slowly.

Originally Posted by Glifford

Excellent report man! Very well documented and immensely helpful to people like me who want to do a Bangalore-Mangalore-Udipi sometime near the end of this month!

Must have taken a lot of effort! Thanks!

You are welcome. This forum is about our passion for our automobile and helping another member with information that will help in their journey.

Best Regards/Satish Prabhu